On cloud 9: How Loyola University Maryland achieved impressive savings and efficiencies

In 2016, Loyola University Maryland took a holistic look at the organizational structure and operations of its IT department. Randall D. Gentzler, Loyola’s vice president for finance and administration, had a suspicion that the IT organisation wasn’t performing as optimally as it should. He shared his thoughts with Loyola’s president. “‘Something doesn’t feel right,’ I told him. We were finding it difficult to complete a large number of active projects and initiatives, with no established way to prioritise them based on their value,” he says.

There were also increasing complaints about underperforming technology and IT processes across the campus—not just from staff and administrators, but students as well. “We also started examining the evolving student experience and what they were looking for. Student demand was increasing and I didn’t feel as if we were keeping pace.”

Gentzler and Loyola’s administration knew that cloud migration would change the way the IT department—and the entire university—operated, but that change would offer unparalleled opportunities for efficiency and cost savings. They were, in effect, thinking “big.”

The direction Ellucian is going in and their commitment to cloud strategy—and higher education in general—is pretty spectacular.

Randall D. Gentzler, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Loyola University Maryland